I spotted this on Facebook today, and I’m not really sure what to make of it. The author, Walsall Prophet, has created a newsletter style .PDF file in the manner of stuff by the blogging community in Walsall, making the following rather bold claim in their profile:

Along with the Mushroom and Brownhills Bob thought it would be a good idea to have a Walsall wide platform for people to blow the roof off the corruption and lies that happen in our great town.

Whilst I appreciate the hat tip I’m a bit puzzled, to be honest. It’s a pretty odd way to publish something – it’s not search engine aware, and the only publicity seems to be within Facebook, and the .PDF format isn’t terribly user friendly. Surely this stuff is better suited to a blog? Further, rather than blowing any lids off, it opens with a bit of an odd rant about council redundancies. For a start, it assumes no one has noticed the losses, which is plainly incorrect, as anyone using the Local History Centre or many other services will attest. The frankly piss-poor poke at staff walking around and committing the heinous crime of talking seems a bit harsh, too. Most of the lost jobs weren’t in the Civic Centre but outlying bases, and I don’t really expect a culture of terrified silence to ensue. The use of temps is a continuing thing in any large business, so I find that rather moot, to be honest.

There are some good points in the rest of the leaflet, though, although the exclamation mark abuse could do with toning down a bit. This is natural, competently written blog material and it would be good to see it get wider publicity. I’m utterly mystified by the method of publication. Walsall Prophet needs to sharpen the game a bit, but this is a welcome development. I encourage them to write more.

Please, please, consider taking this to a blog and getting it into a decent, readable format without the daft font. It’s good to hear other voices and I, and I’m sure all other Walsall writers welcome you onto the scene.